Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
This is one of those "child-asked-to-play-a-slave" stories that people seem to get outraged about every year around Black History Month. Frankly, though, after reading the facts of the case, I don't see what the big deal is.
In fact, I am glad to know that white-majority school districts are tackling the very difficult topic of slavery in America, but the Mother of an Ohio fifth grader at Chapel Field Elementary School disagrees.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, during a lesson on slavery, teachers divided a fifth-grade class into two groups: "masters" and "slaves." Nikko, an African-American student in the class, was put in the "slave" role, and the only other black student in the class wound up a "master."
Nikko explains:
"At first, I didn't care, but after people were bidding on people, it kind of made me a little mad and stuff."
Nikko's mother, Aneka Burton, claimed the "masters" were told to look at the "slaves'" teeth, and that "whoever was the strongest, that's who they sold first." Burton says her son refused to take part in a simulated slave auction and was sent back to his desk.
I'm STILL not seeing what is the problem.
Aren't lessons on slavery supposed to make everyone uncomfortable? Doesn't acting out the inhumanity of the slave trade force young people to confront just how awful it was? Nikko's words are interesting:
"At first I didn't care, but after people were bidding on me, it kind of made me a little mad and stuff."
So at first Nikko could care less about being auctioned off like a piece of cattle, but when he realized how humiliating it was, he got angry and stuff.
Isn't this what's SUPPOSED to happen? I thought that was the point of the exercise.
In a generation so far removed from the slave trade and its legacies, where slavery is just a bunch of Kunta Kinte jokes, perhaps a little more has to be done so kids like Nikko can realize that the generations before them struggled and died and faced unthinkable atrocities, so their little black asses can wear those Jordan's while playing their X-box in a lilywhite suburb in Ohio.
The principal of Chapelfield Elementary School, Scott Schmidt, placed a call to the home of Burton, saying he was sorry that her son, Nikko, was forced to play a slave. He added:
"I will definitely make sure it doesn't happen again. It was never our intent to cause harm," reports the Columbus Dispatch.
Nikko's mother said that while she appreciated the principal calling to apologize, she thinks school officials "should be educated about black history. That was inappropriate."
It seems that what's really inappropriate is this notion that our children should never be forced to confront things that make them uncomfortable or awkward or "mad and stuff."
History is full of painful lessons, important lessons that our children MUST learn if they are to ever appreciate the gains this country and this community has made. My parents made us sit down and look at Roots (pictured), and I remember crying and being scared to death when "Toby" was getting whipped. Though I was mortified, it was the first step in learning what my ancestors went through so I can enjoy the life I lead today.
Hell, if I was the principal I wouldn't have apologized for anything.
SO WHAT Nikko was "mad and stuff," the teacher (or his dumb mama) should have taken that opportunity to say, "Well, how do you think the slaves felt?"